The present invention generally relates to wireless information transfer and interactive manipulation of such information using an electronic medium and, more particularly, relates to sending and receiving information, e.g., messages, text, and graphics, via a wireless medium and generating and/or viewing such information through a television.
It is known that a conventional television can receive information signals through a modem connected to a telephone line or audio/video signals through a cable line. However, transmission of audio/video signals is done in one direction and sending from the television is not possible or, at least, known to be a problem. Also, sending of signals long distance across a cable wire poses several problems due to, for example, signal loss.
Recently, the literature, particularly U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,393 to Remillard, discloses an electronic device and method for accessing facilities and displaying associated information on conventional television sets. Information related to available facilities and programming are downloaded to electronic devices. However, all communications are through telephone lines or through cable. The signals which are transmitted across telephone lines have a bandwidth of around 3-5 MHz. For cable transmission, especially for sending the signals from the users or viewer for pay-per view requests, frequencies are limited to about 5 to 6 MHz per channel.
It would be highly advantageous to provide methods and apparatus for providing wireless transfer of information and interactive capability through a conventional television for generating, editing and/or viewing such information, for example, information related to financial markets, banking applications or information related to emergency situations (e.g., distress calls). For instance, being able to receive, as well as send, messages related to purchasing stocks would save time. Also, in an emergency situation, the ability to generate or receive a distress message via a persons' television set would save time and, as a result, likely save lives. The wireless transmission would advantageously provide global long distance access of information. For clarity of information, it would also be desirable that the wireless medium be capable of transmitting digital signals.